Christmas Decorations

I decided to try a new craft. I haven’t ever needle felted and saw the idea to make needle felted ornaments using cookie cutters as moulds. In theory it was a good idea but in reality I feel like I need a big more practice before I get the hang of it. I made three ornaments before I broke the needle and then it was game over.

When I moved across the country 11 years ago, we were broke. We had just moved in October and I started a new job in the middle of November. We were living in a one bedroom furnished basement apartment. We didn’t have Christmas decorations, and couldn’t afford a Christmas tree. We bought a string of lights for the tree that came with our furnished apartment, and decorated it with paper cranes. It was simple festive and inexpensive.

These stars are in line with the cost of the paper cranes from our first Christmas. I bought a book with 100 sheets of patterned paper for $7.00 and the ribbon at the dollar store for $2.50 (2 spools with 5 colours each). You also need a glue stick which I borrowed from my son, and a glue gun which I had. With many hours of binge watching labour you can make 100 ornaments for $9.50.

As you can see sometimes I rope the whole family into my crafting adventures. We have done clay workshops a few times together, and it’s always a little stressful, but a lot of fun. These clay trees were easier than the mugs we made in the last project. I think that they turned out pretty good, and the kids are super proud of their creations.

Many, many years ago my Nana used to make these quilted fabric ornaments. She made the red one pictured above. I love opening the boxes of ornaments each year and reminiscing about past Christmases.

I thought that I would try making a few quilted ornaments and put my own spin on them. My quilted ornaments are made mainly from my husband’s old dress shirts. I am up-cycling, and adding a little of his personality into our decor and Christmas.

Every year I make an ornament for each of my kids so that when they grow up they will have ornaments from their childhood for their trees. They both chose their own fabrics, the red one is for my oldest, and the black one is for my youngest.

I took the day off of work today to spend the day in my oldest son’s class making yarn star crafts. It’s like heaven to me, an entire day making crafts and attempting to influence the young people to make things. It’s going to be chaotic with 25 grade 4-5’s and a number of craft stations. But it’s Friday, and it’s bound to be significantly less stressful than my day job.

My office/craft room is like a craft store. I had everything that I needed to try this out. If you don’t happen to live in a Michaels’s the list of supplies is below and I found a great tutorial here.

Like this:

It’s the 12th day of Christmas today, or maybe even day 13 but if you are like me then perhaps you have lost track of the days.

My oldest saw kids making these at school this week and decided that he wanted to make one too. I know it’s hard to believe but I had all of the materials on hand. This was his first sewing project so I am a pretty proud mom. I’m impressed my 8 year old would initiate this on his own, and follow through to completion. Perhaps crafting is genetic?

• On the first day of Christmas my true loves made for me, an Ornament Wreath.

Like this:

Wow, today was a day. I’m on an emotional roller coaster and I’m exhausted. Whose with me? I’m ready for that long winter nap I’ve heard so much about.

The kids had a Christmas craft night at their school tonight. All of the teachers design and supply the materials for a craft and the kids make crafts in their classroom. The kids love it. I usually try my best not to be a helicopter crafting mom, but I didn’t have the self control today.

On the first day of Christmas my true loves made for me, an Ornament Wreath.

Like this:

I was making a craft today when my five year old asked if he could have a clear ornament ball which I was planning on using for my project.

He was very excited, and told me he was going to make the ball into a snowman with eyes, a smile and buttons. And he was going to sign his name. He got out the permanent markers and got to work.

When he was finished I suggested that we fill it with snow which like all the other materials, I had on hand. He was sceptical. I got out a jar of snow and got to work filling it up. He proceeded to show my other son and husband his masterpiece, which prompted the making of a second snowman.

On the first day of Christmas my true loves made for me, an Ornament Wreath.

This blog began as a 12 days of Christmas Crafting blog, which has morphed over the years to incorporate whatever was going on in my life. I have kept up the 12 days of Christmas crafting for quite a few years, and am going to attempt it again.

Let’s kick it off with the first day of Christmas. On the first day of Christmas my true love made for me….

A sparkly wreath. Who doesn’t love a little sparkle and glitter? I got the ornaments, and silver ribbon at the end of the year last year in a grab bag. I think I paid $4.00, and got piles of craft junk, including all of the balls, and the ribbon. The only other material required was a metal coat hanger.

Want to make one?

separate the ends of the hanger

form the hanger into a circle with pliers – a shape resembling a circle is fine, it will be covered by balls

fold one end of the hanger into a loop. This will stop the balls from falling off when you feed them on the wire. The loop is also used to connect the other end of the coat hanger when you are finished

feed the balls on

close the wreath by sticking the straight end of coat hanger through the loop and using pliers flatten the closure

Every once in a while a package from my mom arrives with a surprise inside for the kids. Once it was these little cuties, and another time it was Star Wars and Paw Patrol finger puppets. This past week it was a cute Christmas scene complete with its own box. I know that I can thank my dad for that contribution because it looks like one of his cigar boxes. My mom has some serious talents as she dreams up these little figures. I appreciate the up-cycled cigar box for the environmental aspect as well as the storage of this little set. My boys are very lucky to have such a talented grandma to make them toys.